A Complicated Story About Jingle Bells
Ten bells, same jingle.
What’s makes an object an object? Is it defined by its form or function? We’ve explored this topic before and it will be a recurring theme in many stories to come. The history of things are often difficult to track because they are buried in the crevices of time and space. Objects over time change their meaning. Objects across countries change their name. This story about crotal bells- an object spanning several centuries, two continents and a plethora of Christmas carols.
What are Crotal Bells?
Crotals have a distinct form shaped more like a rattle than a traditional bell. The sound is produced by a tiny metal pellet inside a round, semi-enclosed body.
Crotals were originally manufactured as two halves crimped together that evolved into a patented, one piece cast in the 19th century . Other variations range from the style of the attachment loop to the number of slotted openings at the base.
Finding Crotals
No two crotals are alike… especially in the history books. Constant re-purposing / re-naming made it impossible to connect all the dots. But we will tell our story in three parts: Bells for Christmas, Bells for Birds and Bells for Trade.
Bells for Christmas
Let’s start where all searches begin- Wikipedia. The website categorizes bells into twenty-two separate types. Though impressive, there is a problem distinguishing “crotal bell” from “jingle bell”.
According to Wikipedia, crotal bells are characterized as rumble bells for horse-drawn vehicles. In other words, rumble bells are sleigh bells. Sleigh bells are the signature theme of Christmas carols, most famously, “Jingle Bells”.
“Jingle bells. Jingle bells. Jingle all the way! Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh!”
But are we singing about the jingling of sleigh bells, or actual jingle bells? Technically, they are the same thing. Jingle bells are percussive instruments, which are used to emulate the sound of sleigh bells for songs like… wait for it… Jingle Bells.
Bells for Birds
Crotals weren’t just used for one horse, open sleighs. A smaller sized version is known in falconry as hawk bells. These crotals are attached to the hawk’s leg or tail, signaling its movements in a hunt or at weathering yard. Falconry became a popular European sport from the Medieval period through the 16th and 17th century, particularly among the English, French and Spanish.
Despite falconry being a land sport, these bells made their way on board ships to the Americas. For unknown reasons, explorers had enough hawk bells to trade with the indigenous groups they encountered. Growing interest in these small, metal trinkets boosted production and export value to new heights.
Bells for Trade
Archaeologists find hawk bells at hundreds of late period, Native American sites as a result of trade with Europeans. In its new form, hawk bells became decorative adornment for clothes, bags and other ceremonial wares- a tradition that continues day.
Archaeologist, Ian W. Brown (1975), observed six variants of trade hawk bells recovered from sites linked to English, French and Spanish trade. Brown developed a new series of categories to distinguished trade bells by material, manufacture and loop shape. For example, early bells made of two-part sheet brass were soldered using a flushed joint (Flushloop Bells), flanged around the perimeter (Saturn Bells) or crimped at the seam (Clarksdale Bells). In later periods, cast brass bells were attached with a V shaped loop (Fishkey Bells, Flowerkey Bells) or a U shaped loop (Circarch Bells).
Written by Acacia Berry, Archaeological Analytics
